With great power comes great responsibility
by imnemocomeandfindme
Summary: When Tom finds out that not only can he turn invisible, but his bandmates have extra abilities too, it makes life a whole lot more complicated... Please review! It makes me love you :D
1. Chapter 1

Tom has never been so scared in his entire life.

He's standing in the bathroom of his house, where he came because he felt so weird he thought he was going to throw up, but now he's staring into the mirror and what he sees really scares him. Actually, it might be more appropriate to say that what he doesn't see really scares him, because he has no reflection.

When he looks down, his hands in front of him looks all weird and shimmery, like they're not quite there, but when he looks in the mirror there is nothing except an empty bathroom to be seen. No Tom. Anywhere.

"Tom," comes Dougie's voice, accompanied by a banging on the door, "you alright in there?"

"Go away!" Tom yells, confused and scared and not a clue what to do. Maybe this is all a weird dream, and things will be normal when he wakes up. He pinches himself, just to check. Nope, definitely awake. Definitely real.

"Tom, if you don't open up in the next ten seconds I swear to god I'm bringing Harry up here to break down the door! I know you can hear me!"

Damn that kid, he was always so persistent. His reflection isn't coming back though, and if he's honest with himself, Tom wants to know if other people can't see him too. That and he really need a hug right now, and maybe Dougie is less likely to freak out than the other two.

"Okay," he says quietly to the door, going over and watching his semi-transparent hand grip the handle, "but you have to promise not to freak out."

"Promise. I swear, Tom. Please, I want to help."

Tom takes a deep breath, turns the lock and pulls the door open. Dougie is right on the other side, looking wary. Just as he feared though, Dougie's eyes slide straight past him, a look of confusion painted on his face.

"Tom? Are you hiding?" Dougie says, walking slowly forwards a couple of steps and pausing, looking behind the shower curtain almost as if he expects Tom to leap out from behind it shouting 'Boo!'

Tom can feel himself shaking, as he takes a step towards Dougie, before saying "No, I'm right in front of you," watching Dougie freeze at how close his apparently disembodied voice is, and an almost realisation dawning on his face. Dougie turns round then, and walks back to the bathroom door, shutting it and leaning against it, before standing up straight again.

"Okay. Touch me then." He says it like he's giving permission for someone to give him an electric shock.

Even so, Tom steps forward, and watches his own hand move forward and grip Dougie's wrist with a strange fascination, thinking he might still be sick, the way he feels at the moment. Dougie jumps at the initial contact, but then uses his other hand to feel up Tom's arm and along his body, looking curious, but not as shocked as Tom was expecting. Not even that concerned really, which is definitely strange. At least Tom knows he isn't a ghost entirely though, if Dougie can feel him.

Suddenly, Dougie grins like a kid on Christmas morning, and throws his arms around Tom, which results in a collision of heads as Dougie can't see him still.

"Why are you so bloody happy about this!? I'm invisible! What if I'm stuck like this forever!?" Tom says, pushing a now laughing Dougie off him, almost feeling like he's going to faint with panic and the weirdness of it all. "It's not funny, Dougie!"

"Sit down, Tom," Dougie says, still smiling in a ridiculously annoying manner. He sits on the floor cross legged, and then seems to realises he can't actually see if Tom has done the same (which he hasn't). Dougie starts feeling around the floor around him, patting the bathroom tiles like a blind person that's dropped something. Tom realises what he's doing a second before Dougie's hand finds his ankle, and with a sharp tug Tom finds himself landing flat on his back, then being manhandled by his bassist into a sitting position next to the bath, facing Dougie. He still finds it unnerving how Dougie's eyes don't quite meet his own, even though logically he knows he should be impressed that Dougie is managing to look anywhere near his head in the first place.

"Why are you so calm? Shouldn't you be freaking out at least a little bit?!" Tom says, wriggling uncomfortably as Dougie holds his knees, like he's making sure that Tom isn't going to make a run for it.

"Well, to be honest, I've been waiting for this for a while now...we all have really..." Dougie says, looking annoyingly cheerful still.

"What are you talking about? Who's 'we'?" Tom says warily, only slightly comforted by Dougie acting like this is completely normal, but still tense.

"Me and the guys: Danny and Harry. Thing is..." Dougie says, awkwardly lifting a hand to push his hair out of his eyes, "thing is that we could all do unusual stuff, so we were wondering why you couldn't yet."

"You can all do stuff and you didn't tell me?! What can you do?" Tom says, even more freaked out by the image of any of them flying or teleporting.

"My power is sortov hard to explain...like this at least. Just...watch me, and try not to pass out, okay?" Dougie says, patting Tom's knee in what he probably hopes is a reassuring manner.

"Okay..."

_"Can you hear me now?" _Dougie says. But hold on, his lips didn't move and so what the hell was that?

"Do that again," Tom demands, almost thinking he is going to faint it made him so lightheaded, though he's trying his best not to.

_"What do you want me to say?" _Dougie tilts his head to the side, voice sounding inquiring in Tom's head, but no actual noise in the bathroom.

"That is seriously weird, Douglas Lee Poynter," says Tom, scrambling backwards in spite of himself, making Dougie crack up again. "Can you do anything else?"

"I can hear your thoughts, if you want me to," Dougie says, and this time it's out loud. Tom is grateful, because he thinks that maybe Dougie realises that he has a bit too much weird to deal with for the moment, without voices inside his head.

"What do you mean, 'if you want me to'?" Tom says, genuinely curious now, even though he still feels sick, like he's on a boat in a storm.

"You have to think them like you're speaking them out loud to me, just without using our mouth. It's pretty cool actually!"

"Yeah," Tom agrees weakly. Pretty cool that you can have mental conversations with another person. That's one way of putting it. Then he remembers, "Am I stuck like this forever: invisible?"

"Nah, you'll just need to learn to control it. You're probably still like that because you're panicking. Come here again," Dougie says, holding out his hand expectantly. Tom crawls forward again, and takes Dougie's hand, letting himself be pushed to lie back on the bathroom floor with Dougie sitting behind him, his head on his lap.

"Now shhhhh. Close your eyes and think of your happy place. This is all fine and you can control it, it just takes practice." Dougie starts stroking Tom's hair, pulling his fingers through it and humming a random tune softly under his breath. Tom does as he's told; breathing deeply and thinking of being downstairs with the rest of his band, his best friends around him. He listens to the sound of Danny and Harry laughing at something on TV downstairs, and how he can feel Dougie's heartbeat slightly under his head.

"There you are," Dougie says, and Tom opens his eyes to see Dougie looking at him, right at him! He's visible again! Tom jumps up, and stares at himself in the mirror, twisting to look at himself from all angles and running his hands over his now definitely visible body. Dougie is back to giggling on the floor, laughing at how strange Tom looks, twisting round in front of the mirror like an idiot. Tom can feel sweat from his panic cooling on his body.

"Done yet?" Dougie asks, recovering his breath and getting up to push Tom gently away from the mirror. "We have some bandmates who need to hear the good news."

Crap. Danny and Harry. Who can do crazy stuff too. Oh god oh god oh god what can they do that he doesn't know about?

"You can talk in my head," Tom gasps out, suddenly remembering what he heard earlier, and not using his ears.

_"Yup," _Dougie says in his mind, _"and I'm gonna use it as much as necessary to get you down those stairs."_

Tom lets himself be pushed downstairs by Dougie, almost scared to go down and find out what the others do, but eventually they arrive in the living room, and Danny and Harry turn round to see what's going on and it's too late to run. "_Don't panic. Deep breaths. Remember they're your friends."_

It takes him a second to realise that it's Dougie's voice in his head and not his own, so he sends a _"Shut up" _back, as aggressively as he can without showing it on his face, and Dougie starts giggling again, pulling him forward so that they're standing in front of the sofa the other two are sitting on.

"Tom has something to tell you," Dougie says excitedly, bouncing off the balls of his feet with anticipation.

Harry looks back and forth between the two of them, and Danny just stares at Tom expectantly. The silence lengthens between them. God, this shouldn't be so hard to say if what Dougie said about them being able to do stuff is true, but it's just so weird!

"Harry is asking me to tell them, can I? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaase?" Dougie says, hanging off Tom's arm and sounding like a kid begging for sweets. It's all Tom can do to nod, not sure if he can say it out loud at the moment.

"Tom can turn invisible! Isn't that just soooooooo cool?" Dougie says, bouncing up and down for real now, cheeks flushed with enthusiasm.

"Awesome! About time too, mate!" Danny grins, getting up and hugging Tom so tight it feels like he's having all the air squeezed out of him.

"Was that what you two were doing up there for so long? I thought Tom must be being sick!" Harry says, pulling Tom down onto the sofa as soon as Danny lets go of him, rubbing his knuckles into Tom's hair like he knows is annoying.

"Came damn close," Tom grumbles, batting Harry's hands away but staying sitting next to him, as Danny and Dougie squeeze onto the other half.

"How much did Dougs tell you then?" says Danny, nudging Tom's foot with his own.

"He said he could talk in my head, and I could talk back...in a way. And that you two can do stuff too, but he didn't say..." Tom trails off, not feeling he knows how to continue the conversation.

"Didn't say what we could do?" Harry finishes helpfully. After Tom nods, he gestures to himself and says "Well...I can make force fields. They're magnetic or something I guess, but I'm not sure. It means I can levitate a bit though, if I make a strong enough one below me..."

"We think he might be able to learn to fly!" Says Dougie, bouncing up and down on the sofa so he almost lands in Tom's lap a few times.

"I've only known what I can do for four months or so, so I'm still learning," explains Harry, looking faintly embarrassed.

"I can feel people," Danny says ignoring Dougie's snort of suppressed laughter. "I mean, I can sense people's emotions, and control them a bit, if I want to...like...I knew you were scared upstairs, but I thought it could be something else..."

"So if Harry's only known for four months, how long have you two known about your powers?" Tom says, shifting round to look at the other two better, suddenly feeling over-conscious of his thoughts and emotions, worried one of them will pick up on something.

"Well, I've known for a bit more than a year, and Doug here found out a couple of months after that. Stop it you two," Danny says then, smacking Dougie over the head.

"What? What did I do?" whines Dougie, eyes wide with mock innocence.

"They're having a telepathic conversation," Danny explains to Tom, "you can see the way they look at each other and go quiet."

"I was just asking," says Harry, having the decency to look sheepish at being caught out, "if he had seen you go invisible, and if he thought you could do it again."

"And I was partway through saying, before we were interrupted," Dougie said, sticking his tongue out at Danny who gave him the finger in return, "that I had, and that I didn't know if he can decided when he does it yet."

All three turned to look at Tom expectantly, as if he could tell himself. "I don't know," he blurted out, wondering whether he should, if the others had been able to do those things deliberately in the first day of discovering their powers.

They leave him be then, realising it's a lot to cope with for one day. Harry and Dougie eventually go up to bed, so it's just Tom and Danny left, watching ridiculous late-night TV.

"Stop worrying, it's going to be okay," Danny's voice comes through the semi-darkness. Tom turns to him, seeing the light from the TV reflected in his eyes.

"I'm fine, just tired," Tom lies, hoping that it doesn't show on his face.

"Don't try that, you can't lie about how you feel with me, remember?" Danny says, tapping the side of his head like that's where he gets his powers from.

Tom groans, realising how much more complicated things are now that he's in the know. Then he has an idea.

_"Hey, Dougie, you still awake?" _Tom thinks, trying to aim it somehow to where he knows Dougie's room is above them.

_"Mmmmm?"_ comes the response, and Tom hears the tiredness even in Dougie's thoughts, knowing he must be on the edge of sleep.

_"Tell Danny to bugger off with his emotion sensing thing,"_ Tom thinks, smiling as he hears Dougie's snort in response.

He knows when the message comes through, because a second later Danny cocks his head to the side like he's listening to something in the distance, then laughs.

"Dougie says you say to stop using my power to be annoying, and he says to tell you that he's not a bloody messenger pigeon!" Danny grins.


	2. Chapter 2

They spend most of the next week in the garden, where the high hedges shield them from prying eyes, or, when it rains, in the living room. Gradually Tom learns how to make himself disappear when he wants, but still sometimes does it involuntarily if he gets scared (Dougie jumps out at him in the morning still, just to see him disappear with shock). He manages to scare the others a few times by sneaking up on them, but between them Danny and Dougie can often work out where he is by following his thoughts and emotional trail or some such rubbish. Tom's pretty sure that it's just lucky guesswork that leads them to him.

Harry waits until it's raining until he takes Tom out to show him his power. Harry refuses to let him have an umbrella, and stands him in the middle of the garden, so they stand side by side looking towards the house. It takes a moment before Tom notices, but the rain has stopped. Except it hasn't, because he can see it around them, and realises that there is a circle around them where rain is no longer falling, and there's a point about a metre above their heads where the rain just seems to vanish; it doesn't hit anything, it just isn't there anymore. Harry is obviously smug at the control he has over his power already, and so Tom tries not to look too impressed.


	3. Chapter 3

It's March, a month after Tom discovered his power, and the four of them decided that it's time for a band holiday. They decided to go skiing in the Alps again; they've done it a few times before. Tom and Harry used to go with their families, but they decided to take Danny and Dougie up the mountains too. Danny took up skiing, because he said it would be easier with the two others having done it before, but Dougie decided he wanted to snowboard because, as he put it, "I'm not posh enough to ski, and snowboarding is pretty similar to skateboarding, right?". It turned out not to be true, but a few lessons later Danny and Dougie are able to keep up with Tom and Harry. There's the added advantage of skiing that, under the helmets and goggles and ski suits, barely anyone recognises them.

When they arrive they are in a small chalet halfway up the mountain. It's isolated, but that's what they wanted. Hidden by trees around the house, they have snowball fights, but not the usual sort. It soon turns out that Harry's force field's deflect snowballs, and so if he sees one coming it gets evaporated a few feet before it reaches him. Tom gets hit a lot less too, because being invisible turns out to be an advantage when someone is aiming at you. They end up dividing into teams, because Danny and Dougie get fed up with being hit all the time when the others stay so dry.

After a few days of larking about and dashing up and down slopes, they all decide on their favourite run in the area. It's pretty steep in places, starting wide and then narrowing to a path through forests, and then a final icy bit before a chair lift to take them back to the top. That is why, one morning, a week in, they are all standing at the top of the run.

"I'll race you all to the bottom," Harry says, his competitive streak coming out again, "and whoever's last gets the beers in after, okay?"

"Nah, mate. You an' Tom are too good! I'll race Dougster though. I reckon I can beat 'im" Danny grins, cheeks flushed from the cold.

"Okay then. Me against Harry, and Danny against Pugster. Ready...set...go!"

They race down the slope, Tom and Harry getting ahead early, but both pretty even as they swish through the snowy mounds. Tom breathes hard, his eyes watering slightly from the speed as he stops turning and shoots straight down the hill into the narrow part of the run, praying that there isn't a ski-school group up ahead. He can hear Harry right behind him though, and laughs as he takes the inside turns of the corners, forcing Harry to take the longer route.

Tom pulls ahead a bit more once they get to the open stretch, weaving easily between the people littering the slopes. Turning was always his strong point, and sure enough, as he skids to a stop, spraying the queue for the lift with snow, Harry arrives just after, stopping a few feet from him and swearing, though clearly not really annoyed. They barely have time for Harry to grumble or for Tom to gloat before a loud call of "Haaaaarryyyyyy!" precedes a flying Dougie, shooting along at a barely controllable speed. Harry moves out of the way just in time, but Dougie collides with Tom, pushing them both over into the snow and landing on top of him, knocking the breath out of Tom entirely.

Dougie giggles madly, not bothering to get up and squishing Tom further into the snow.

"I won! Ha, you should have seen Danny's face when I passed him!"

"Where is he? Cant have been that far behind you," Tom says, trying to push Dougie off while the bassist tries to shove snow down his neck, but still laughing too much, only succeeding to drop snow on Tom's face.

"Fell over, just before the trees. There he is!" Dougie sang, twisting round and elbowing Tom in the stomach simultaneously. Tom leans round him to see Danny coming down towards them, much too fast, just like Dougie did at the last bit of the slope. Problem is, especially with all these people around, that Danny hasn't quite got the control the rest of them have, and so swerves so violently to avoid a man in green ski trousers he almost falls. Tom realises what's going to happen, just seconds before Danny goes shooting through the barrier and off the edge of the run, launched into midair, right off a three-hundred metre drop.

It seems to Tom like he slows down, and hovers in the air without falling for a second, before he realises that Danny is hovering, before being pushed back as if by a giant invisible hand, and Danny lands back on the slopes on his side.

There is a moment of silence as Danny gets to his feet and Harry rushes forward, and Tom understands that he used a force-field to stop Danny falling. Danny brushes off his jacket, and looks around at the stunned crowd all watching the pair of them with open mouths. How can they explain something like that? Then Danny's eyes land on Dougie and Tom, and he gulps and quickly looks away, but not before a Tom notices a few other people pointing at them, some children tugging on their parent's sleeves and pointing.

_"Ahhh, Tom, Danny says to tell you you're invisible."_ Dougie thinks above him.

As if things weren't bad enough. Tom quickly makes himself see-able again, and they both stand up, coughing, and try not to look mad.

"Well, let's all move along now. Shall we go back home lads?" says Danny, with only a slight tremble to his voice, with this many people staring at them in broad daylight.

They all start moving towards the still running lift, trying to avoid the stares of random skiers. That is, until a figure in a bright blue ski jacket un-freezes, and runs up, pulling Tom around and looking at him full in the face.

"I knew I recognised that voice. You're McFly, aren't you?" she says, raising her voice so everyone can hear.

"No, definitely not. Don't even know who you're talking about," says Harry, pushing then all along, trough the people, as everyone begins to talk and a few more people start to recognise them.

They get on the lift quickly, just escaping a few grabbing hands trying to get to them.

They ride up the lift in total silence, but when they get to the top, they start shooting back down the slope towards their cabin. They pack everything they need in under half an hour, and leave money on the table and a note apologising for any damage or trouble caused by them.

Then they leave, packing all the stuff in the car, Harry drives them as fast as he can go without attracting too much attention. Danny keeps apologising, convinced it's his fault, but none of them will hear of it. he didn't do it deliberately, and all of them had a part to play. As Harry said, "I'd rather have saved you and have a lot of explaining to do than have you go down that cliff," which shut Danny up well enough.

They get to the airport in good time, but the next flight back to England is in an hour, and they won't be back home until mid-afternoon at least. While they wait though, Tom checks his phone for any news, or gossip, about their little adventure online.

It's bad. Really bad. There are accounts of eyewitnesses saying they saw Danny fly through the air, then stop and fall back onto safe ground, and that there was an invisible person. There's even a grainy photo of Dougie, floating eerily just above the ground, clearly held up by temporarily un-seeable Tom. Word clearly got around that it was them, with people saying they heard Harry and Danny's voices, and Tom was seen by that girl, and Dougie's expression is recognisable from the photo too.

Of course, those are the more accurate accounts. There are some where people swore they saw Danny fly twenty feet up into the air, spin round and then land, and that Dougie was levitating by himself before Tom reappeared. Tom hopes that the more crazy stories will make the world think it's a big conspiracy theory, but with the number of people who were there, and that recognised them, he doesn't have much hope.


	4. Chapter 4

When they land, it's not at the big airport they were expecting. This is an airfield, clearly not far from London, but not where they should be at any rate.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is Captain Alexander speaking. I must inform you that we have landed at Wisley Airfield, where some of our passengers needed to divert to. We will offer any compensation you require, and the stewards will direct you to the nearest available building where we will deliver your luggage to you shortly. Sorry for any inconvenience caused."

"Uh-oh," Dougie mouths at Tom. This definitely isn't good; it seems too big a coincidence that the plane they are on just happens to divert hours after they are more or less exposed.

The passengers are ushered off, most grumbling about what a pain it's going to be to sort everything out, and Tom, Harry, Danny and Dougie go with them, trying to keep their heads down and look inconsuspicious. Tom feels like the blood in his stomach freezes though, when he looks down the stairs out of the plane, and sees four men with dark suits standing at the bottom, watching everyone that passes through dark glasses.

It's horribly cliché, but as more people go past, and they don't do anything, it makes Tom more and more worried about who those men are here for, and he has a funny feeling that he already knows.

Harry is first to reach the bottom of the stairs, and as he passes the last suited man in the line, the man reaches out with a gloved hand and grips Harry's arm, just as the other three do the same to the rest of the band.

"Would you mind coming with me, sir?" says the man that has a hold on Harry, with the air of asking the question as merely a formality, and the answer as irrelevant to the outcome. Harry looks round at the others, as if seeking confirmation for what he already knows he has to say.

"Okay. Lead on."


	5. Chapter 5

They are taken to a helicopter a couple of hundred metres away from the plane, still in the airfield. Once there, they are seated, before being handed noise-cancelling headphones on and being blindfolded, and all this time there is always at least one gloved hand resting on them, as if they might try to escape. What scares Tom the most though, is that as they try to take off, he tries to ask Dougie what he thinks is going on, partly because he's confused himself, and partly because he's scared of how quiet things seem with the headphones on. The silence carries on though; no response from Dougie, however loud he calls in his head.

Eventually they land, and are led out of the helicopter, still blind and deaf. Once they get inside though, the blindfolds are removed, and the headphones taken off. _"Obviously it's a secret location,"_ Tom thinks at Dougie with a hint of irony, trying to get a response. Again, nothing. Definitely not good.

They're led through a maze of never-ending corridors, gradually getting even higher. They come to a lift, and once they're all bundled inside, the suited man that has a grip on Danny pushes a floor button marked 'Floor 50', and has to enter a code and have his fingerprint scanned before the lift begins to soar upwards.

Once the lift doors open, they find themselves in a room with glass walls all the way around. There's a block of filing cabinets to their right, and to their left, there's a man sitting at a desk. He doesn't look overly imposing, his hair is gingery and his fringe sweeps across his forehead, and his blue eyes don't look too serious. As they enter, he stands, showing that he isn't really as tall. He still has a presence though, like he wants something, and he knows just how to get it, he's just waiting for the right time to strike.

"Sit down, please," he says, gesturing to four chairs in front of his desk and sitting back down himself, waving away the men in suits so that they finally release them, going back into the lift and disappearing from view. They sit, cautiously, like they expect to be shocked by the plain black seats, but nothing happens.

"You're probably wondering why you're here, or perhaps you already know, or have at least guessed by now surely," says the man, leaning back in his chair easily. None of them speak. Of course they can have a good guess, but this man clearly doesn't need any kind of confirmation.

"Oh come on, don't be like that! Do I have to spell it out for you? Fine. Freaky business went on over in Europe, and it's my business to find out more, okay?"

"What if we don't want you to find out more?" says Danny, with an expression Tom clearly recognises as one he uses when he's being brave in the face of losing out on something.

"Well, so far we know at least a little," says the man, getting up and beginning to pace around slightly. "Tom here can disappear, but there's clearly still physical matter there. That's an interesting power right there, but then there's you," he said, turning and pointing at Danny, looking thoughtful. "Now, you can either fly, or maybe levitate, but that doesn't seem likely judging by the performance in the mountains does it? No...you would have got out of sight before you showed yourself, and you looked pretty scared, so you weren't expecting that much more than the rest of us were. No, I think that one of you," he said, wheeling round and pointing to Harry and Dougie, "has some kind of power that did that to stop him going over the edge. The question is, which of you it is, and what can you do?" he finished, finally leaning against the edge of his desk and looking at them.

"How are you going to find out anything if we don't tell you?" asked Harry, looking defiant.

The man snorted. "You might have noticed, depending what they are, that your powers don't work in here." Suddenly not being able to hear Dougie made sense. "This room has a floor made of cadmium compounds," he said, gesturing to the shiny white floor surrounding them. "Cadmium represses powers for some reason. The gloves that my men were wearing had it sewn in too."

"So?"

"So, dear Harry, your powers are useless, hence me having no need to be afraid of you. In this room, you are but mere mortals. This means that we can extract information in the usual way secret services do, with or without your consent. There are usually 'tells' to a power, so we can do tests to get an idea of what it could be, and then find out more specifically through other tests."

"You can't do that," said Tom, aware even as he said it that he sounded like a petulant teenager.

"Actually, I can. But I haven't actually told you the purpose of all this," he said, striding round to the other side of his desk. He rummaged in a drawer, and pulled out a remote control, which he aimed at the nearest window, making it turn black. The other windows all seemed to darken too, though not so much, and the one in front of them blinked into life, like a giant computer screen. 'M.E.O.A.' flashed onto the screen in large black letters.

"Welcome to the Ministry of Extra-Ordinary Abilities," said the man, grinning and sweeping his hand across the letters as he said what they stood for. Tom felt numb, feeling, if anything, even more confused than before. The man registered their blank expressions, and continued.

"A while back, in 2002, there were some people with unusual abilities discovered. The government decided to harness these abilities for the good of the people, and set up our department, so that they could train them up to use their powers more effectively, and then become, if you like, Britain's secret weapon. Against what, I cannot say.

There were three of them back then, called Matthew Willis, Charles Simpson, and James Bourne. All of them were in their teens, a similar age to you, and they each began showing signs of unusual abilities.

The government took them into training. They showed them how to use their powers better, perhaps to the greatest possible extent. For three years they improved, getting stronger, better. Then things took a turn for the worse.

Charlie and Matt disappeared one day. They didn't appear for training. Next thing we knew, Matt was tearing up havoc all across the world, but things have quietened down since then at least. We're not entirely sure what happened to Charlie...he may have been working with Willis at one point and then stopped, or possibly have just escaped to carry out his own plans. Either way, our evidence now suggests that he's dead, but that Matt is still at large somewhere, possibly in South America."

The man paused for a minute, allowing the information to sink in. It was Tom that spoke first though.

"So what happened to the other one? What happened to James?"

The man smiled wryly. "He's sitting in front of you."

Danny did an almost comical stare around them before he realised that the man he had been looking at all along was James Bourne.

"But how come you're doing this then?"

"What, you mean how come I'm not being nice to you because I should be all sympathetic because I'm just like you? Because I need to get things moving, because somewhere out there is definitely Matt, who could be plotting to end the world, and Charlie who is still a potential threat. They have to be eliminated!"

"Whoa! Hold on... they were your friends weren't they?" said Harry, looking confused.

"Once, but then they went and left me, and now I need to make sure that they aren't doing anything!"

"But you said that Matt wasn't doing anything anymore and that you think Charlie is dead, so why force us to do stuff, if you don't even know what we can do..." Dougie said, reddening under the furious glare of Bourne.

"I don't have to explain myself to you!" he shouted, shutting off the screen which had changed to a picture of a younger version of himself and two others. He jabbed at a button at the side of his desk, and almost immediately the men in suits were back, pulling them up and out of their seats.

"Test them. I want to know what those three are hiding," Bourne said, now controlling his voice but still trembling with his sudden rage. "And work on the other one too," he called as Tom was pushed roughly into the lift, almost tripping over Dougie's feet as the man holding him pushed a button that read 'Sub-levels', and the lift dropped like a stone.


	6. Chapter 6

When the door opened, it was immediately obvious that they couldn't get out. The place had clearly never seen sunlight, and the walls were a stark white like a hospital. More men came, these ones wearing lab coats, so that each of the boys had someone holding him on each side, and pushed them out of the lift and into the corridor. Tom was turned right, and pushed along, but the other three were shunted off to the left. Tom started to panic, kicking and yelling, as he saw the others turn and notice him not following them they started to do the same. Someone in a mask came through a door just ahead of him, and he only saw a flash of silver before he felt a needle sinking into his arm. As the syringe was pulled away, he felt himself go limp and heavy, like he was being pulled down. The last thing he saw was Harry breaking free and running at him and getting tackled to the ground by more of the men in suits.

Then everything went black.


	7. Chapter 7

When Tom woke up, he was in a bed in a perfectly white room. Light seemed to glow from the whole ceiling, and it took him a moment for his eyes to adjust to the brightness. Apart from his bed, there was a small table with drawers, and a small bathroom setup in a corner behind a curtain.

As he swung his legs off the bed, a door slid open in the opposite wall, and a woman with chocolate brown hair and eyes and lightly tanned skin entered.

"Hello, Tom," she said, smiling at him and giving a slightly awkward wave. The gesture made him feel slightly more comfortable, but nothing could ease the feeling in his gut that all of this was terribly, terribly wrong. "I'm Giovanna, one of the workers here, and I'm going to try to help you find out what you can do."

"I think I'm fine with what I can do at the moment, but thanks for the offer," Tom said, standing up. It was worth a try, at least.

She smiled again, shaking her head so that her curls bounced around. "Sorry, but it doesn't quite work that way." She began moving around, straightening the bed and then going to the drawers. Tom watched her; she looked a little awkward being here, but seemed like a good enough person.

"What's happened to the others?"

She bit her lip, looking nervous. "I don't know how much I can tell you...they've only been being tested for a couple of hours..."

"How much have they found out? What are they doing to them?"

"I know you're worried, Tom, but they're going to be absolutely fine. We wouldn't risk losing any of you for the sake of knowledge. What you need to focus on now is your training, so if you could just..."

"Why can't you just let us go?!" Tom interrupted. He wasn't usually rude, especially to someone who seemed so nice, but he was getting frustrated, and she didn't seem to be helping.

"Look, Tom. I know that you're probably scared and confused," which Tom felt was definitely an understatement, "but there's nothing you or I can do to help them right now, and they don't need saving. I know that it seems strange to be here so suddenly, but in the long run you'll see that it's for the best," she finished with her hand on his shoulder, which he shrugged off sullenly.

He opened his mouth to say that it hadn't helped Matthew Willis or Charlie Simpson, but saw the look on her face and closed it again before the words had a chance to escape, feeling like he was back in school.

"To start with, because we already know that you can make yourself invisible, we thought we'd do two things at once. For a start, do you know how long you can stay invisible?" she said, and he shook his head. He'd never tried for longer than half an hour at most, because that was how long one of their hide-and-seek games lasted. "Okay then. The first test will be to see how long you can hold it, and see if it makes you tired or anything. The second test I will do will be to try to work out how you can be invisible,"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I studied physics and biology at university, specialising later in light. I assume you know that we see by light being reflected by objects into our eyes, which then send electrical signals to the brain. We want to know at what point this pathway normally taken by light changes for you when you turn invisible." Tom knew he looked blank. He'd never thought about how he could be invisible before really. The first part he understood from school, but the part where they did the pathway thing, what was that about? Giovanna noticed this though; "I mean that I have several theories. The light could be travelling straight through you, or bending around you, or it could be something else entirely."

"Hmm," Tom made a noise that he hoped sounded like he understood and wanted to find out too. He was curious, he was just wary of what needed to be done to find out.

So they started, first Giovanna marked out a cross on the floor, and got Tom to stand on it and then turn invisible, at which point she started a stopwatch she had dangling around her neck. She then walked all the way around him looking up and down, trying to spot anything that hadn't become invisible with the rest of him. After that she told Tom to stay invisible, but take her hand, which was warm and comfortable. He did as he was told, and she led him out of his room and down the corridor into what looked like a laboratory. In it were several benches, with test tubes containing all sorts of coloured liquids, and machines that looked equipped to do all sorts of things. She got him to stand between two slabs of machinery which were a good foot taller than him and almost half a metre thick. She told him to stand just in front of one, and then moved the other until it was just in front of him. She went behind a computer and tapped at the keys for a minute, before she said the most concerning thing yet.

"Hold still for a few minutes while it scans you. I'm just going to draw this curtain around so I don't get exposed to too much of the radiation, and you better not touch the boards or it'll give you a nasty shock. Remember to stay invisible!"

For what felt like an hour, Tom tried to take shallow breaths and not move a muscle. The machine kept thudding and whirring, and Giovanna's voice calling over it that it was "nothing to worry about" did very little to sooth him.

When it was over, and she moved one of the slabs back, he gasped in a breath, finally allowing himself to feel the lack of oxygen. Giovanna checked her stopwatch, and told him that it had been about ten minutes since he had been invisible, and he had to check over her shoulder because he didn't believe her at first.

"Do you want to see what that test showed?" she asked, walking back around to her computer and pointing at a number of squiggly graphs that meant absolutely nothing to him.

"This one," she said, pointing at the top one, "means that the light is definitely hitting your body, so we know at least that the light isn't going round you. This one," she pointed at the one below which had a number of up and down spikes, "means that the light that hit you wasn't what the scanner picked up on the other side though...so what does that mean?" she said, raising her voice at the end as if Tom could answer her question.

"Doesn't matter, I can work it out later. For now though, you must be tired," she said, feeling around behind her until her outstretched hand hit Tom's arm again, and she grabbed his hand and started to lead him towards the door.

"Why? What's the time?" Tom said, surprised. The absence of daylight messed with your body clock, and he had forgotten to put his watch on that morning.

"It's almost midnight, they knocked you out, remember?"

"Oh...yeah, of course."

"I'll have a clock put up in your room for you. Do you know if you can stay invisible while you sleep?"

"Umm, I've never tried it," he said, allowing himself to be led back into his room and sat down on his bed.

"Well, I suppose we'll find out that too then! I'll see you tomorrow, Tom," she said, turning a dial on the wall to dim the lights and leaving, smiling as she left.


	8. Chapter 8

It's a week before it gets too much.

When Giovanna comes in that morning, she's greeted by an empty room.

"Tom?"

There's a snuffling, but no reply. Not good. Tom was always there before.

"Tom, I can't see you..."

Another snuffle as the door slides shut softly behind her. "That's what you want, isn't it? To not be able to see me," comes Tom's voice, clearly way beyond upset, but it's hard to work out where he is in such a plain room.

"No, of course not. I'm just trying to help you, you know that don't you? Where are you, Tom?"

He doesn't reply, but she thinks that the shaky breathing is coming from the opposite corner, so she takes off her usual lab coat and starts walking there slowly until there's only a square metre left in the room, and yes, that's definitely where he is.

She sits down and puts her hand out until she can feel an arm, and he's definitely shaking, trying to contain sobs but not quite managing. She pushes herself along the floor so she can feel his body against hers all the way up and puts her arm around him, pulling his head round so he's crying into her shoulder, her shirt spotted with tears that look like they have no source. She holds him tight, listening to his breathing slow, still shaky but better, and the sniffing grows less frequent.

"Tom, can I see you, please?"

He flickers slightly as he comes into view, like an old lightbulb being turned on, and she knows it's because he's still upset, because he can't control it so easily when that happens. She smiles down at him and pushes his hair out of his face, wiping under his eyes with the pad of her thumb so that the tear tracks smudge away. She hands him a tissue she has in her pocket, and he takes it gratefully, blowing his nose loudly, but still sniffling a bit.

"What's wrong?" she murmurs, running her fingers through his hair, making him close his eyes and relax slightly.

"Just...miss them. And it's all so weird..." he mumbles, turning his face away and wiping his eyes quickly again.

"'Them'? You mean your bandmates?"

"Yeah," Tom said, sniffing. "I haven't spent this long without seeing one of them for more than ten years. Just...never thought this would happen, y'know? Do you have anyone like that, someone you would give anything for?"

"Not really. Just my family."

"But you have a home you go to every night, and there's someone waiting for you to come back?"

"No. I mean, yes I have a home, but there's no one waiting there for me. I see you more than anyone else these days actually," she said, blushing a delicate pink with the last sentence.

"Oh, sorry," Tom said, realising it might not have been the most tactful thing to say. "I just mean...those guys are pretty much everything to me, and now I'm shut off from them, completely, and I don't know when I'm going to see them again, if ever..."

"I know," she said, trying to think of what could make things right for Tom, "but you know that they're alright, and I would tell you if I heard anything had happened to them."

"S'not the same as seeing them though."

She thought for a moment, twirling his hair through her fingers. "What if I asked for you to see them occasionally, for emotional stability?"

He looked up, eyes shining again, but with hope this time. "You could do that?"

"We couldn't be sure it would work; I mean, I don't decide these things, but I can always ask I suppose, if you wanted me to..." she said, pulling him to his feet at last.

"Thank-you!" he smiled, pulling her into a tight hug. "Honestly, you're the best, Giovanna!"

"Don't get too excited," she said as they separated, "I don't know if I can do anything, I'm only a researcher here, I barely know what's happening to the others, but I'll see what I can find out," she said turning to the door and picking her lab coat off the floor, putting it over her arm.

"Oh, and by the way, Tom," she said, turning back to the room, already halfway through the doorway. "My friends call me Gio, not Giovanna."


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note:**

**I just wanted to say that I've loved the comments I've got so far! It would be brilliant if everyone that read did a comment so I can do better and use your advice :D**

**Also, someone (you left no name **oooooooh mysterious ;)**)said it was sad busted were always villains, and I agree! I just love putting bits of other bands and people in the stories, like Gio and others you will see later! And you have to admit... if they did turn bad they would be such cool baddies! I do love them really, which is why I couldn't resist putting them in!**

**Okay...you can get back to the story now. Just remember to review ;D xxx**

* * *

"Hey, Tom," Giovanna says, sidestepping the door before it even opens properly and picking up her clipboard. Tom honestly has no idea what she writes on that thing; maybe it's just to make her look professional...

"Hey, Gio," he replies, getting up off the bed and being pleased that he gets to call her that now. "Any news...about me seeing the guys?"

"Sorry, not yet; there's a chain of command my suggestion has to go through, and it's stuck at Mr. Bourne at the moment."

"What, he's not the one in charge?" Tom says, surprised.

"You didn't know? Well, I suppose he wouldn't have told you himself. No, Mr. Bourne likes to pretend he's top dog, but he would never be in charge."

"Why not? He seemed pretty important when we met him...fancy office on the top floor and all that..."

"Yeah, he likes to show off, but he's only second in command really. Thing is, he has powers, so the main government would worry he's biased, that he'd make the wrong decision for the nation because of that. And...well... How much did he tell you about what happened in 2005?"

Tom thought back to that day it had all seemed to start. No dates came back except 2003, when Bourne, Willis and Simpson had got discovered, or caught, depending how you looked at it.

"Ummm... I don't remember anything about that..."

"Well, that year was the other two disappeared, and left James behind. There's worry in the higher ranks that Bourne was either left as a spy, or that he was emotionally destabilised by being deserted by his two friends. As time goes on it looks more likely that the second option is true."

"Huh, weird. I never thought about anyone else being in control," Tom mused, sitting back on the bed cross-legged.

Suddenly, Giovanna's expression changed, looking oddly mysterious. She sat next to Tom and turned to face him slowly and deliberately, her smile strangely coy.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" he said, shifting under her gaze.

"If I had done some talking with some of the other researchers and found out what's been going on with the tests on the others, would I be the best person ever?"

Tom gasped, moving forward so enthusiastically he practically fell into her lap. "Yes! Oh my god! What's happening to them?"

"Well, I only know bits and pieces of what's going on, but I thought you should know..." she paused, giggling slightly as Tom began to bounce impatiently on the bed.

"Okay, well, apparently one of the first tests they did was put sensors all over their bodies to see if there was anything out of the ordinary there. On Harry, his whole body was buzzing with electrons, which for some reason weren't magnetic. They think that he can control electricity, or repel objects, so we're pretty sure that he's the one that saved Danny when you all went skiing, though obviously we can't tell for sure, though it's almost certain he has a power for repulsion..."

"He's always had powers of repulsion, nothing supernatural there," Tom muttered, as force of habit of insulting each other returned now he knew he could relax, at least a little bit.

"Pardon?"

"Never mind. Please carry on."

"Okay. Well, apparently when they put the sensors on Dougie they noticed something odd there too. There was nothing coming from his body, well, nothing abnormal, but his head was buzzing with radio waves."

"What? Radio in his head?"

"Yeah. Everyone has a tiny bit. Let me explain it this way: if you say that the normal amount for a person is 1 on the scale, and the maximum amount most people can take before their brain fries is a 5, Dougie had at least 50, probably more like 60 going though his head. He should have been way beyond dead, but obviously that wasn't the case. We're still working on what he might be able to do though. We think it could involve broadcasting or receiving certain frequencies, but it's hard to tell because he won't help us out, even though he's not actively resisting the tests."

_"Well, broadcasting and receiving is kindov what he does, I suppose,"_ Tom thought. "_At least he's not being difficult, knowing Doug it could have been a lot worse."_

"And last but not least, Danny. Actually it is least really, because we don't know much yet. The tests they did on the other two seemed to come up normal for Danny, but they ran some blood tests and apparently he has some kind of mysterious cell type that isn't normally found, but they've yet to identify it, so we don't know what it would do for him."


	10. Chapter 10

Another week after Tom hears about the findings on the others, and Tom gets more good news. Because he's been so good in training, and been working reasonably well for Gio, he gets to see one of the others, but he doesn't know who yet.

Giovanna keeps a firm grip on him down the corridor, leading him to the large hall they've sometimes used for training. By the time they get there there are already two people in the room. He barely gets a look at the brunette woman with a lab coat just like Gio's, though, before a body slams into his and he's nearly knocked over, but held up by a pair of strong arms he knows very well.

"Tom, you have no idea how good it is to see you," Harry says, words muffled by Tom's shirt as he has his face buried into his neck. Tom hugs him back tight, loving the familiar smell and feel of Harry after their days apart. It feels a bit like coming home.

"I missed you too, Haz," Tom murmurs, trying to hold back a new wave of tears; these past few weeks he's cried more than he can ever remember...must be the lack of sunlight or something...

"What's been going on in Land of Fletcher then, eh?" Harry says, stepping back and quickly moving his hand across his cheek like he's wiping something away.

"Not much. I can stay invisible for eight hours straight now, but not when I sleep, and sometime soon we're doing something to 'expand my potential', whatever that means... What's up with you?"

"Meh, just the usual. I've been repelling stuff that's been chucked at me and experimenting with levitating..." Harry says, like he knows it's really cool but is trying to stay casual.

"Levitating?!" Tom exclaims, grabbing Harry's arms with excitement. Harry must know that Tom's picturing just about every geeky superhero film right now because he steps backwards and says "Wanna see?"

Befor Tom can answer, Harry makes a face like he's concentrating and spreads his arms out like he's going to take off, and then he does! Slowly, he starts rising off the ground until he's a few inches off, just hovering there. That is, until he's knocked over by Tom enthusiastically grabbing him again and yelping "Do it with me! Do it with me!"

"Umm, I don't know if I can; I only learnt to do that a few days ago and it's harder the higher I go...with another person I might not manage..."

"Oh go on, Harry. You won't know until you try," Izzy says from the corners where she's standing with Gio, and Tom realises they've been watching them the whole time. Harry nods and steps forward uncertainly, looking Tom up and down like he's deciding how best to do this.

"Piggy-back, maybe?" Tom suggests, and then unable to restrain himself runs around and jumps up on Harry's back, like they've done a million times before in their garden.

Harry just barely makes it off this time with both of them, but it's enough for Tom to go pink with excitement and bounce up and down on his feet when they get back down.

"How does it work? Do you know?"

"Izzy can explain it better than me," Harry says, blushing slightly as the women walk over to them. Tom hugs Gio when she gets close; he can't help it, he's just so happy and glad to have her, but looking at Harry, he's more than happy with Izzy too.

"It's pretty simple really. Harry has loads of excess electrons which can be used for repulsion, which is how the force fields work. It means he can essentially make a condensed force field below him, which repels him, pushing him up," she finishes proudly, like it's some kind of school project a kid has done well in.

"That's why I put my hands out: for balance," Harry interjects helpfully.

"So, theoretically," Tom says slowly, back in movie land again, "it would be even better if you were lying slightly on your front, with maybe one arm out in front and one behind..." he trails off, trying to sound innocent.

"Well, I suppose that would work, Tom," Izzy starts, "but it's just easier if we-" Harry lays a hand on her arm, stopping her.

"Don't give him anything, Izzy. He wants me to be his own personal superman, and it's not," he says, grinning at Tom as he hits him in the shoulder, "going to happen. Ever."

The bell rings in the hall then, which Tom knows means time is up, that he has to go back to his room, but this time he doesn't want to, he wants to draw out the time they have together.

"Just a little red cape, and maybe wear your pants outside your trousers, just for me?" he mock pleads, sticking his lip out and widening his eyes, which makes Harry laugh again.

"Come on, you two. Time to go back," Giovanna says, steering Tom gently towards the door as Izzy does the same to Harry, leading him to a different door on the other side of the hall.

Tom turns to Giovanna, and asks her with his eyes, knowing she'll understand. She nods once and lets go of him, letting him run back and hug Harry from behind.

"Bye. I'll see you soon," he says into Harry's ear, hoping that what he says is true.

"Yeah. See you soon," Harry says, leaning his head back on Tom's shoulder and putting a hand up to ruffle his hair.

Gio's back. "Tom, we have to go. They'll come to get us if we don't..."

"Yeah, coming," Tom says, and with a final squeeze lets go and walks back to his own door. Just before he leaves, he turns and sees Izzy clipping what look like white bangles over Harry's wrists before they turn and leave too.

"Gio, what are those things Gio put on?"

"What?"

"On Harry. like handcuffs, without the connecting bit in the middle..."

"Oh, they're to stop him using his power to do anything when the ministry doesn't want him to."

"Like what? Levitate up to the ceiling...and then what?"

She taps a code into the door Tom knows now is his own and raises her eyebrows at him as they enter, and he sits on the bed, suddenly tired again. "Tom, Harry's power could do big things when he learns to control it. They don't want him escaping or hurting people."

"What, and I'm not dangerous enough?" Tom says, knowing he's sulking when he shouldn't, but feeling like he's been deemed inferior.

"No, because you can't slip out of here using invisibility, even though you can use it for loads of other stuff. Harry though... he could do some serious damage if he wanted to, and didn't have those bracelets..."

She leaves then, but something about how she said that makes Tom think. It's almost like she was telling him Harry could do damage for a reason, like he needed to know, and a little bit wistful too, like maybe she wouldn't be so totally against Harry doing something, if only he could.


	11. Chapter 11

They get paired up, Tom and Harry. Apparently Giovanna and Izzy (Harry's appointed researcher) managed to persuade whoever's in charge that they would progress better if they were together, and they're certainly not going to argue.

It's mid-morning, and they're passing a ball between them. It's to improve Tom's coordination when he's invisible (because even though he can still see himself, it still throws him off a bit with the simmeryness) and to get Harry to repel stuff in a certain direction (i.e. back towards where he thinks Tom is).

_"Hey, Tom, you there?"_ comes Dougie's voice, and it's such a shock that the ball hits Tom smack in the middle of the forehead.

"Oh god, sorry mate, did I miss? You okay, Tom?" Harry says, running to get the ball again.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just missed it..." Tom says, rubbing between his eyes and wincing. That's probably going to leave a bruise. "Carry on," he says for good measure, as Gio and Izzy look round.

_"You nearly gave me a heart attack, Dougie! Where've you been?"_

_"Ahh, you know what it's like with these scientists..."_ and Dougie sounds like he always does when he's sarcastic. _"I'm fine anyway. Have you seen Haz?"_

_"Yeah, he's with me now. Have you seen Dan than?"_

_"Yup. Looks like they teamed us up as metal and physical, huh."_

_"I guess. Do they know what you two can do then?"_

_"Pretty much," _Dougie thinks wryly, _"Captain Obvious over here started comforting this Georgia woman when she'd been acting fine. They did a few tests using actors pretending to have feelings other than they really had and he forgot to react to what he saw not what he felt. Apparently they used projections of us three too as tests, because obviously he got nothing from them. Meant that when I came into the room though and looked all pleased to see him he thought I was computer generated and said I needed to use my power to prove it. I asked him how he was in his head and he said "Fine thanks, and you?" so I think they could piece together the picture from that."_

_"How come we haven't heard from you then?"_

_"Y'know that cadmium stuff Bourne had in his office? They made me wristbands that lock on and I have to wear them anytime I'm not in training, and then I do it in a special room where thoughts can't get out."_

_"Oh, right. Harry has those too. So how come you can talk to me now?"_

_"Had them off for training and hid them so they forgot to make me put them back on straight away, but listen,"_ Tom missed the ball again, slightly awed by the uncharacteristic cunning of his bandmate. _"Do you have any ideas of how to get out of here?"_

_"Nah, sorry. Giovanna holds my arm every time we're in the corridor, and the lift needed a fingerprint to move anyway, remember?"_

_"Ooohh, who's Giovanna?"_ Dougie thinks, immediately switching to cheeky mode at the mention of a woman and wolf whistling for good measure, which he had never quite mastered in reality, incidentally.

_"She's a researcher who's involved in my training and looking at how I'm invisible and stuff..."_

_"Ahh, you old romantic. Oops, gotta go; I think they've found my bands but keep thinking of how to get out and make sure Harry does the same. I'll try to get through to you again,"_ Dougie thinks, finishing in a rush and then cutting off completely.

"Alright, you two. Time to go back to your rooms for now," Izzy says, walking over as Harry passes her the ball. Tom pops back into sight and moves closer, trying to catch Harry's eye without the women noticing, but he seems distracted by Izzy. Finally he looks up at Tom, and gasps in surprise, taking a step forward.

"God, Tom, what happened to your face?"

Tom reaches up to touch it and winces. Maybe that ball hit him harder than he thought; he can feel his head throbbing now, and the way the others are looking at him definitely isn't good.

"I must've got knocked on the head by the ball harder than I thought... Is it really bad?"

"Um, well you're forehead has doubled in size and is bright red with purpleish splotches, but otherwise good," Harry says wryly.

"It really hurts," Tom says, spotting an opportunity, not to mention it actually does. "I think I need painkillers or something," he turns his best pleading eyes on Giovanna and Izzy, praying they'll take the bait.

"Oh Tom, you're such a baby," Giovanna says, laughing but turning to go to the medicine box, Izzy following slowly, still half-concentrating on them, which is not quite good enough.

"Harry, I need you to hug it better," Tom says, making his voice all babyish so the others wont notice with their backs turned, but making a face at Harry so he understands, or at least gets the idea.

"Okaaaayy..." Harry says, obviously confused, but knowing something's up. He moves forward obediently and hugs him, while Tom makes sure his lips are hidden from view by his head.

"Dougie just spoke to me," he whispers.

"What? Is he okay?"

"He's fine, so is Dan, but he has wristbands like yours to stop him communicating. He wants us to work out how to get away from here," Tom finishes quickly as Gio returns with a glass of water and two white tablets for him to swallow.

"What were you two gossiping about, eh?" Izzy asks, raising her eyebrows, and even though he knows she means well, Tom can't help resenting the intrusion.

"I was saying how homesick I was feeling," Harry steps in quickly, "and how I thought that seeing the others might help. I mean... seeing Tom is great, but I'm worried about them and it would just make me so much happier if we could just see them a few times a week maybe..." and Tom realises that it's the first step to escape, to be able to communicate, especially now they know they can't rely on Dougie's power.

Giovanna looks sympathetic, like she did when she came in and Tom was crying about the exact same thing before in his room.

"We can always try," says Izzy, rubbing Harry's arm in what is clearly a comforting gesture, "but it was hard enough to get just you two together, so I wouldn't get your hopes up too much about the others."

"Sorry, boys," says Gio sympathetically, just as the bell signals the end of their time.


	12. Chapter 12

"Hey, Gio," Tom says, remembering something he thought of earlier and losing focus on what he's supposed to be doing, popping back into sight. "You know how you said James Bourne isn't in charge... well if he isn't, then who is?"

Giovanna looked up from the notes she'd been making on Tom's progress. At the moment, he's supposed to be trying to extend his invisibility beyond himself, because he can do it with the clothes he's wearing, so theoretically should be able to do it with things he's holding, so they started small with a pin, which took him two hours to vanish, and now they've moved up to a water jug, which is proving more tricky.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Just curiosity I guess. I want to know who's keeping me here," Tom says, shrugging.

"Well... I don't think I've ever seen him myself, actually. He exists more as a name than as an actual person. Bourne follows his orders, so I presume that he must have some kind of communication with him, but I wouldn't know who he was if you pointed him out to me..."

"What is his name then?"

"Same as yours, actually," she laughs, ruffling his hair.

"What, Tom Fletcher?" he says, self-consciously brushing his hair back into place with his fingers.

"No, I meant Fletcher. His name's Matthew Fletcher, but he's basically known as Fletch. He rules from on high, and we never see him. Apparently he doesn't listen to the prime minister, or the queen, or anyone where this department's concerned. He's like some kind of all powerful God of the M.E.O.A. and he's the one who tells Mr. Bourne how to run the place on a day to day basis."

"What's he doing then, if he isn't here?"

"Nobody really knows, but I think he might be trying to search out Matt Willis, or finding out what he can about Simpson. Honestly, Tom, you most likely won't ever meet him, so I wouldn't worry about it."


	13. Chapter 13

**4 weeks after they arrived in the M.E.O.A.**

**Dougie's training**

"So, how did I do on the last lot of tests?" Dougie asks, spinning round and round on the spot like he's trying to make himself dizzy before Molly, his trainer, grabs his arms to stop him, though he still sways on the spot.

"You did well, actually," Molly laughs, letting go, which makes Dougie stagger left, losing his balance. "You projected thoughts through two metres of lead, which is excellent, and that test for picking up actual radio signals –"

"The one where I had to sing along?" Dougie interrupts, still unsteady on his feet.

"Yes, I broadcast a song at you and you sang along, remember?"

"Yeah, I was good, wasn't I?"

"Yes, you did very well, though –"

"I meant my singing was good," he grins, before beginning to spin absentmindedly again.

"Dougie, stop that! Yes, you were very good," she says, rolling her eyes and looking back at her notes. "I was saying though, that you weren't so strong at interrupting the radio waves, so we need to work on that, as well as everything else..." she trails off watching him spin across the room for almost a minute before he trips over his feet and falls over, rolling onto his back with a groan as she walks over to him.

"I tried! It was just really hard, and I did all the other stuff!"

"Yes, yes, you really are a very hardworking little boy, would you like a sticker for effort?" she says, turning her voice slightly babyish at the end and not quite suppressing a laugh.

"Oh, yeah!" Dougie says, missing the slightly mocking sarcasm, getting to his feet too fast and having to bend over. He looks up at Molly laughing and realises his mistake, straightening up with a pretend angry face.

"Sorry, they don't give them out here. We do have things to do though..." she says, holding out her hands. Dougie obediently puts his hands out too, and she unclips the bands that stop him using his power.

_"What are we doing then?"_ he thinks, tilting his head to one side, seeing the way she smiles at hearing him.

"Today, we're trying broadcasting of your own!"

_"Haven't we already established I can do that? I'm doing it right now..."_

"No, I mean with multiple people, like a radio broadcast that can be picked up by anyone, not just the individual person you're aiming it at."

_"Oh, right. Can I ask you something?"_

"You can ask me anything, Dougie. I just might not answer," she smiles at him.

"Right. Well, why don't you use my power? You always speak normally, never just think things..." he says, looking a bit shy, and a little hurt.

"Do you want me to? I'll try to remember if it bothers you, but I never realised you wanted me to..."

"I don't want you too, really, but most people like to think things at me, because it's fun or something," he says kicking the floor, looking down rather than at Molly. "I just thought there might be a reason why you don't do it."

Molly sighs and walks over to Dougie so she can put her hands either side of his face and tip his head up so that he has to look at her.

"I talk to you out loud because to me you are a person, and I want you not to feel like no one will bother speaking just because you're around. I want you to have the same verbal contact you always had with other people, and not to just feel like some kind of transmission station with a body and pulse. Is that okay?"

"'Kay. Thank you," Dougie smiles, a bit throaty, and Molly leans forward to kiss him on the cheek, quick and comforting, and when she steps back he coughs and looks back down at his shoes.

"So, today we need other people, to see if you can do that broadcasting thing," Molly says, turning away and towards the door they came through earlier.

"Danny?" Dougie asks, visibly lighting up at the prospect of seeing him again.

"No, sorry. He's doing something else today. We have other researchers from the labs who already know a bit about you, and what you can do, and volunteered," she says, opening the door and letting in seven people in lab coats, mostly men. They walk forward and stand in a line, looking interestedly at Dougie, like he's some kind of lab specimen.

"I think if you stand at one end, then we can see if you can make your way along the line, so that multiples of them can hear you at once," Molly says, smiling encouragingly at Dougie, as he walks to the nearest end, trying to ignore all the stares he can feel boring into him.

"Okay. What should I think?"

"Whatever you like. It could be a song, maybe, as that's more continuous than words. They can raise their hands when they can hear you. Just go when you're ready."

Right. No pressure. Dougie notices her put on a stopwatch, which does nothing to ease the nerves he feels. It's almost like when he was younger, going on stage in front of thousands of strangers, and told to perform, to not mess up, and to enjoy himself. At least that got easier with repetition, so maybe this would too. And the song? He settled on 'Transylvania', as he felt he was least likely to mess up if he had written it himself.

He started, projecting it onto the woman next to him, who had lovely brown hair. She raised her hand instantly, looking round at him with surprise before looking ahead again.

Now for the hard part. He'd never tried doing it with more than one person before. Ah well, first time for everything. He tried to imagine the connection between him and the woman like a thread between them, and pushed it out so the man along from her was on it too. As soon as the man raised his hand and Dougie realised he'd made the connection, he felt something else too, like each of the researchers was a little point of light in his mind. No, not quite light, but that was the best way he could think of describing it, and it was different for each of them, like they were different colours or frequencies.

Ah, supposed to carry on now, though. Next man along took a bit of a push to connect, but he raised his hand soon enough. Fourth took several minutes of willing him to be connected, and Dougie was concentrating so hard he didn't realise that the first three had put their hands down, and 'Transylvania' had come to an end. Automatically, he began 'Stargirl', realising he had started going through one of their setlists. The first four put their hands up again, and he began work on the next one. It was like he had to stretch part of his own mind out to do it, and it was harder than any of the ones before. It felt like forever, and he'd got halfway through 'Shine a Light' before the fifth man put his hand up.

It took four more songs until the next one was receiving, and man on the end looked bored out of his mind.

"That's enough for today, Dougie, you can stop," Molly says, going to stand next to him and lay a hand on his shoulder. He realises when she touches him that he's sweating all over from the effort of what they just did.

"Thank-you for your time, you can go now," says Molly to the other researchers, and they all turn away and start trooping out. The man Dougie didn't get to looks like he's grumbling to the person next to him, throwing a dark look back at Dougie like he was wasting his time deliberately.

_"Thanks for coming!"_ Dougie launches the thought at him, as loudly as he can, and grins smugly when the man almost falls over in shock, crashing into the door, then casting a quick glare in his direction before scuttling out.

Ah, that felt good. Until he turns and finds Molly with her hands on her hips, eyebrows raised and accusing look on her face.

"It was an accident?" he says, opening his eyes in an overly innocent attempt at forgiveness.

"Idiot," she grins, hitting him over the head playfully. "You know I could report you for abuse suing your powers of something," she says, handing him a bottle of water from the side.

"You wouldn't," he grins, proceeding to drink half the bottle, then pouring the rest over his head in an attempt to cool himself. "Besides, what would they even do? I'm far too precious to risk losing..." he laughs as she tries to swat him with her clipboard, dancing out of reach.

"Well, our arrangement with Danny would go for starters, and you might be put in solitary confinement for a few days, or have restricted food, or something else. I don't organise the punishment so I wouldn't know."

"Even if you were, you love me too much to do anything really bad," he grins, and sweeps her into a tight hug before she can escape.

"Ew! Dougie, get off! You're all sweaty and dripping on me!" she pushes him away and he lets go, laughing and pushing his wet hair back.

"Right, you need a shower, and maybe after that a haircut, because that is getting far too long now," she points at his fringe, which has already fallen back into his eyes.

"Okay, whatever," he groans, turning away and walking towards the door.

"Uh-ah. Come back here a sec," she calls, taking his wristbands out of her pocket and clipping them on tightly. "Wouldn't want to forget these now, would we?"


	14. Chapter 14

When Giovanna walks in almost three months after McFly arrived, and Tom isn't in his room, that worries her, because he's only vanished on her twice. Once when he broke down when he couldn't see the others, and the other time for a joke to try and scare her, but this time he's not calling out, or giggling, and that's not good.

"Tom?" she half calls into the room, because it's not that big, but she needs to know where he is, needs a response.

There's nothing though. Not a greeting. Not a sound.

"Can I see you, please, Tom?" she says, and moves forward into the room, her hand coming away from the doorframe. As she reaches the middle of the room, she thinks she hears something coming from behind her, near the door, but when she turns he's not there. The room seems totally empty.

**In the corridor**

Tom breathes deeply, trying to keep quiet and calm. He got out of his room after Gio moved out of the way of the door, but that was the easy part. He regrets having to sneak past her, and she'll probably get in trouble for it, but he wants out of there and he needs to find the others. It's only been a few days since he last saw Harry, and they had established then that they couldn't get out together, because there was too much security around the training room, but individually they might be able to sneak off...

They could have stayed, and try to cooperate with whatever James Bourne and the government wanted to use them for, but, honestly, it doesn't feel right. He needs to be free again, and be able to argue with Harry about irrelevant things that don't really matter, and watch all of the Star Wars films again with Dougie, because it's been almost a year since they did that last, and he needs to laugh at the stupid stuff Danny comes out with sometimes, and tease him just because he can. It's been too long, and he hasn't even seen the sun for a quarter of a year for god's sake!

He had a fairly good idea of how to get to Harry's room, as they had given each other directions. Tom flattens himself against the wall to let a woman in a lab coat walk past, holding his breath in case she hears him.

He only has a few minutes at most before Giovanna realises what's happened and they come after him. He takes a left at the end of the corridor and jogs along the bland white corridor that looks so much like all the others in this basement they're stuck in. He knows that his shoes are squeaking on the plastic flooring, and he should care, but there are priorities, and the time limit is top of his list right now.

Right then, a siren starts sounding, and it sounds like the fire drill they did at school. Tom knows that he has two turns left until he reaches Harry's room though, and he runs faster, skidding and almost falling over on the second-to-last corner, pushing back against the wall to stay up, and he can see the end, and he's so close, if only –

But there's something happening and it makes Tom's heart stop and a horrible taste of metal fill his mouth. There's bars, lowering down at the end, and even as he goes as fast as he can, he knows that there's no way he can reach Harry's corridor in time.

The metal hits the floor with a clang, just as Tom collides with it, gripping the bars with hands that shimmer not only with invisibility, but tears too now. So close. So close.

He turns and slumps against the wall, shuddering with sobs that he doesn't bother holding back.

Two men appear from the other end of the corridor, and start moving forward, hands out to stop him getting past. They're wearing some weird goggles, and if he didn't feel so awful, Tom would laugh at how huge they are. As they grab him, though, he doesn't make any effort to resist. He doesn't turn visible though. He doesn't want to give them the satisfaction.


	15. Chapter 15

**Danny's training**

"What are we doing here, then?" Danny asks, spreading his arms out and looking at the rolling hills around them. They arrived that morning, and took the helicopter far out of London, going north until they were surrounded by hills and dropped off.

"Well, from the past few weeks of what we've been doing, take a wild guess, eh?" Georgia says, grinning at Danny.

"More tracking? But we did that before and I can do it now so I don't need more walking over hills following some blokes emotional trail!"

"You did well with the following part, but that was with people who had been walking along before you, like a hound following a scent, and as you said, you did do well. Now, though, you're going to try and find someone who was just dropped off, so there's no trail to follow, okay?"

"Not that I get to say no," Danny grumbles, looking around at the countryside surrounding them again. "Fine, then. Is it the same guy as last time?" he asks, needing to know what sort of thing he's looking for. When he was following people, it was like there was a cloud, or mist or something in the air where they'd been, telling him how they were feeling, but it wasn't like he saw it so much as felt it. Finding someone without a trail would mean he needed to know what sort of signs he was looking for, like whatever he followed them with was a way away and he just needed to find the direction it was coming from and then walk until he found him.

"Yup, it's still John," she replies, scribbling something on her clipboard. She doesn't have the lab coat on today, because it would look too unusual to anyone they come across, but she still needs to take notes on what he does, so the clipboard stays.

Danny looks out at the valley below him, and tries to concentrate, but there's nothing there, so he turns on the spot slowly, until he's facing north, towards the largest hill in the surrounding area, and there's definitely something that feels like John's trail did over there.

"It had to be up the bloody mountain, didn't it," Danny groans and sets off with Georgia following. "Morning," he says to a couple walking their dog on the same path. Georgia doesn't do anything to stop him talking to people, probably because she realises that he would never try to cause trouble or get away. If he couldn't get the others out too, there would be no point in escaping.


	16. Chapter 16

Tom lies on his bed trying not to jiggle his leg like he always does when he's bored, because he knows it's annoying. He just can't help it, though, when there's been nothing for him to do for almost two weeks now. He hasn't had any training, or seen Giovanna, or anyone else for that matter. He's been in total isolation for almost two weeks now, because of his escape attempt. He could have carried on practicing, but he doesn't feel like giving them the satisfaction of seeing how far he can push himself.

The worst part is not seeing Harry at all now. It wasn't that much before, but at least it was something. Now he has nothing.

And he had been so close! He was one turn away from the door that led to Harry's room. One door between him and a real chance at freedom.

Sometimes he replays those minutes in his head, and it's almost like torture, but he cant stop thinking about it. The bars coming down, and those men with their thermal sensing goggles or whatever so they could see him coming and grabbing him. The sirens wailing around him. it's like the noise is all around him again, and he screws up his face, trying to think of something else, something that doesn't sound so much like being caught.

But the sound isn't just in his head. It's outside his door! Tom sits up and swings his legs over the side of the bed, not quite believing what he thinks he can hear. His room is as empty as always, but outside he can hear the alarm that meant that he was escaping, and running, and shouting. There's a tremendous crash, making him jump to his feet, not sure whether to stand his ground or hide.

He sees his door vibrate a second before it explodes towards him, and he instinctively ducks, bringing his arms up to shield his face and turning away. When he looks back up, though, he smiles so much he feels like maybe his cheeks can't stretch like that, and his face will break, but right now he doesn't care, because there's Harry looking like he's just blasted through the door, and behind him are Danny and Dougie, looking like they've just been in a bomb explosion, which really, if he thinks about it, probably isn't that far from the truth.

"Get moving, Fletcher, we don't have all day!" Dougie grins, moving forward and yanking Tom up, and grasping him in a tight hug before pulling him towards the door, and he sounds so normal it makes it even more surreal.

"How did you..." Tom says weakly, gripping Danny as they come together at last.

"Later. We need to go. Now," Harry says, pushing them away just as a crowd of guards run round the corner, and he pushes his hand out towards them, seemingly forcing them back, all of them colliding with the wall behind them.

"This way," Danny yells over the noise, pulling them along. He leads the way, seemingly knowing instinctively the way to the exit, and Tom and Dougie go in the middle, with Harry bringing up the rear. Bullets start to zing past them, and Tom panics, dropping to the floor, but Dougie pulls him up quickly and they keep on running.

"Harry's got this. They can't get us, so just keep going!" Dougie yells, looking disturbingly like he does when they play video games, and not like there are real people shooting at them with real bullets, even if those same bullets keep dropping to the floor around them with pings.

Danny leads them to the lift they arrived in, that very first day, but they need someone that works there to make it work, because it needs fingerprints.

At that moment, Tom notices a couple of researchers huddled under a table in the corner, and Dougie seems too at the same time.

"Guys," Harry calls, like a question and a warning, as more guards round the corner, and even if he's good, there has to be a limit to what he can do, and with so many of them now...

"Get up and work the lift," Dougie yells to one of the workers, and Tom wonders if maybe he has gone mad, and this is a dream after all, when the man does as he's told, and walks over, putting his hand on the metal plate, making the lift doors slide open so they all bundle inside, taking the lab assistant with them. They can hear a thunking and small round dents appear on their side of the wall as bullets are still being fired.

"Up, make it go up to the ground floor," Dougie orders, and the man shakes and whines, his eyes full of fear, but his hand still presses the right buttons, and the lift starts moving upwards.

"Why is he doing what we say, when we're not hurting him?" Tom asks nervously, watching the man cower against the wall as far away as he can get from them.

"Mind control," Dougie says, rubbing his temples tiredly. "I don't like doing it, but they wanted me to learn. Guess it came in useful after all."

Tom barely has time to process this information before the lift slows to a halt and makes a pinging noise. The shiny metal doors slide open.

* * *

_**A/N: I'm really sorry that I've been so bad at updating recently! I've been busy with exams and other stuff, but I am still writing bits and pieces in between! I hope this chapter (and anticipation of more to come?) can make up a little bit...**_


	17. Chapter 17

The reception area seems calm, normal, even. There are shiny grey tiles on the floor, and a marble desk manned by two attractive young women. People in suits stride back and forth, and it could pass for an ordinary office, if you didn't know any differently.

They look at each other, having expected more of a fight up here, but it looks like they haven't heard about what was going on downstairs, so Harry shrugs, and they all walk out, trying to look casual. Tom's all too aware of how they're dressed in casual clothes, and that the other three are all still messy from the fight. Not to mention the man that someone is bound to notice in a minute. Tom suspects from the set of Dougie's jaw that he's using mind control to stop the guy from raising the alarm.

A second ping sounds behind them, and they turn just in time to see a flood of the guards come rushing out, firing at them still. Harry throws his hands up in front of them, and the bullets fall to the ground, bouncing off the tiles.

"Run!" Danny yells, pulling Harry backwards and leaving the other two to get themselves out. They sprint out of the door, Tom panicking about the firing still going on behind him, worried by the bullets that seem to get past Harry which shoot past him.

"This way!" Dougie shouts, pulling Tom down another street. They can still hear the clatter of the guards, but they seemed to have been thrown off guard by the change in direction. Tom looks round to see how far off they are, and feels a slight relief when he sees about fifty metres between them, and then a wave of panic when he realises something else.

"Dougie, where are Dan and Harry?" he yells, twisting around to try to see past the guards, but facing forward again when he almost falls.

"They went the other way, don't worry!" Dougie replies, pulling Tom sideways again at the last minute, gaining them another few metres. "Tom, we need to disappear!"

"You're telling me!" Tom says, unable to prevent the sarcasm, even in this moment of panic.

"I mean invisible you idiot!" Dougie says, looking incredulously at Tom.

"Oh, right!" he says, because that does make sense actually. The next alley they pass he pulls Dougie in, and before the guards come round the corner he grabs his arm and allows the shimmering sensation to cover him and Dougie. He can hear Dougie falter and swear at the new sensation, but before they can't stop in the middle of an alley, or they'll get run over by the guards. Tom sees a fire escape coming out of the building to their right, and pulls Dougie to a halt, climbing the first few steps before stopping when the guards come around the corner, not wanting the noise to give them away.

"Spread out and search, they have to be here somewhere!" one of the guards shouts, and all the others follow his orders. Most start looking up and down the street, but one seems to be eyeing up the fire escape a little too keenly for Tom's liking.

He presses a finger to his lips to tell Dougie to stay quiet, but realises quickly that Dougie isn't looking at him, but turning his hands around in front of him, staring at them with an open mouth. Tom realises then that he's never made the others invisible, so it probably feels more than a little odd.

_"__Dougie!"_ he thinks at him, trying not to jolt him too much in case he makes a sound, but relived when his reaction is only to look up suddenly. _"__We need to get out of here, like, now..."_

_"__Sure.__Dude, you're all shimmery, and sort of purple..."_

_"__You sound like you're on drugs, but yes, this is how I look invisible.__Can we go now before some bright spark gets the thermal imaging kit out?"_ Tom thinks exasperatedly, wishing that sometimes he wasn't always the sensible one in these situations.

_"__Okay.__Up the staircase and onto the roof of this building, then through the door up there, and out the front door of the building!__Easy!"_

Tom nods, and they start moving, as quietly as they can, up the stairs, taking them two at a time to compensate for their slower movements. It seems to take ages to reach the top, but in the middle of the roof is what looks like a brick cube, but it has a door in it, which allows both of them to breathe a sigh of relief.

_"__How did you know there would be a way in up here?"_

_"__Usually is in buildings like this.__I took a guess, and we got lucky," _Dougie shrugs, pushing the handle and cringing as the hinges squeal as it opens. Shouts from the alley suggest that the guards heard it too.

_"__Run?" _Tom thinks.

_"__Run," _Dougie agrees, and they sprint down, Tom taking them off invisibility when Dougie stumbles on the stairs, realising he isn't used to not properly seeing his limbs.

They hurtle downwards, bursting out of the front door and going right on the main street together, Tom remembering to make them invisible again once they're on flat ground.

_"__To the writing park?"_ Dougie thinks, referring to a park they often went to to write some of their best music, and Tom recognises that it's close by, so he agrees.

It means that they don't have to think about every decision of where to turn, because they both know the way, and when they get there, out of breath and sweating, but not being followed, Tom starts to laugh, relief flooding through them as he lets the invisibility slip off them, falling down on the floor with Dougie to catch their breath.

"What now?" Tom asks, finally speaking aloud, turning to look at Dougie.

"Hide and wait for the others to find us?"

"How will they...? Oh of course... Danny," Tom thinks aloud. "Should we find an empty flat to make camp in then?"

"Sure," Dougie responds, beaming and standing, offering a hand to Tom to help him up. As soon as he's upright, Dougie pulls him into a tight hug which Tom instantly returns, holding each other close.

"I missed you," Tom says into Dougie's hair, realising that it's the first day they've seen each other for almost four months, and how much he missed him, and God, he missed Danny too, and he barely saw him before they got split up, and what if –

"I missed you too. Stop panicking, and lets go," Dougie grins, pulling back and hitting Tom lightly on the arm.

"I'm not panicking," Tom retorts feebly, trying to convince himself as much as his friend, but when Dougie does that thing where he raises his eyebrows so far they almost disappear with disbelief, he just sighs and follows the younger man as he leads off to a block of flats across the road from the park.

"They'll find us, don't you worry."


	18. Chapter 18

It's been five hours since Tom and Dougie found a flat that had no-one in it and managed to pick the lock. A sunny afternoon was turning into dusk outside, but inside they were restless. Twice they had spotted guards in the square outside, but no sign of Harry or Danny.

Dougie had given up on distracting himself by watching TV, and was now pacing up and down the living room. Tom had scrunched himself into a nearby chair, and had chosen to practice vanishing random objects, which was unfortunate given how much Dougie was moving around.

"Ow! For God's sake, Tom!" Dougie exclaimed, rubbing his leg after walking into the coffee table for the fourth time.

"Sorry, sorry!" Tom said, holding up his hands and making the table visible again. "I just don't know what else to do while we wait!"

Dougie flops down along the sofa with an arm over his eyes, before lifting it and turning to grin at Tom.

"Whaaaaaaat?" Tom asks, because the way that Dougie is looking at him is weird, and Tom's pretty sure that that's the face he uses to pull girls but there's only Tom in the room right now so...

"Come here," Dougie almost purrs, and that's definitely the voice he uses to get girls.

"Dougie... I don't..." Tom starts, wrong footed and not entirely sure what he's going to say himself. That is, until Dougie starts giggling madly and he realises the jokes on him.

"You should have seen your face!" Dougie laughs, and stops long enough to pull a face of absolute terror, which makes Tom laugh too, because he knows that he must have looked ridiculous, and it's been so long since he laughed like this.

"For a moment there, I really thought you were trying to get with me!" Tom giggles.

"Sorry, Tom, but you're not really my type. Even after being sex starved for four months, I'm not sure you're what I'm looking for..." Dougie pulls a face, and that sets them off in giggles again while Tom pretends to be deeply hurt by the comment.

Dougie sits up once they've recovered though, and pats the spot next to him on the sofa.

"Seriously, though. Come sit with me," and he looks so pleading, and does that thing where he makes himself look so much younger and innocent, like how he was when the band first started.

"Okay, but why?" Tom asks cautiously, unfolding himself from his chair and moving to sit by Dougie, who promptly pushes him so he's lying back into the join in the arm and back of the sofa, then curls up into him with his head on his chest.

"So we can do this," he replies belatedly, wriggling closer as Tom's arms come around him, and Tom remembers how they used to do this all the time when they were younger, but not so much in the last year, but he missed it.

They lie like that in silence for a few moments, listening to each other's breathing, and to the outside world moving around below the window, to the rain beginning to drizzle down from a cloudy sky.

"Should we try to find them?" Tom asks, even though he knows the answer really, he just wants it confirmed.

"Nah, we're not the trackers, Danny is. We'd just be making it harder by moving around, so we should just stay put," Dougie murmurs, nuzzling down deeper. "He'll find us soon, Tom. Just relax."

Tom tries, he really does, but even after Dougie's breathing slows down and Tom knows that he's asleep, he can't stop his heart thudding, and his head creating scenarios of Harry and Danny cornered, or being taken to Bourne's office. He knows that even if he could manage to sleep, he would have nightmares about it, and so he watches the last of the sunlight trickle away and reassures himself that at least he has Dougie, and the other two have each other.


	19. Chapter 19

Tom finds himself woken abruptly by a loud bang, and realises he must have eventually dozed off. Dougie stirs against him, but Tom manoeuvres himself off the sofa, putting a stray cushion under his friend's head. No need to wake him; it could have been someone knocking over a bin in the street, maybe. He goes into the hallway cautiously, trying desperately to see in the flat darkness by the reflection of the streetlamps outside.

Then there's another thud, and that definitely came from the door of their flat, but before Tom can go to wake up Dougie, warn him, maybe, the bolt on the door clicks and it swings open to reveal...

"Danny! Harry!" Tom yelps, and jumps forward to hug them, accidentally crashing their heads together in the process.

"Ow, Tom! Good to see you too, mate," Danny laughs, and Tom can smell dirt and dried sweat on both of them.

"Is Dougie..." Harry asks, looking around Tom as if expecting the smallest of the group to be hiding, prepared to jump out at them.

"He's –" Tom begins, but stops when they see Dougie come round the corner, all sleepy eyes and rumpled hair.

"Tom why did you –"

He freezes for a second when he sees the others, then wastes no time in launching himself at Harry who's closer, jumping into his arms and nearly knocking him over.

"Oof! You're too big to do that nowadays, Doug!" Harry laughs, holding him up and clinging to him just as tightly in return.

"'M not too big. You just can't catch me anymore," Dougie says, disentangling himself and poking Harry's arm, before hugging Danny.

"Why are you so late?" Tom asks, leading them back to the living room and realising suddenly how hungry he is. They escaped around lunchtime, and the clock on the wall tells him that it's almost three in the morning. While the others sit down, he starts to go through the cupboards, looking for tea or biscuits or anything, really.

"Sorry if we kept you waiting, your majesty," Harry says, voice sarcastic but playful.

"We had to shake off some guards, but that took ages 'cos they were really fast, and then when we circled back to find you after a bit they were waiting, so the whole thing started again," Danny explains, sinking into an armchair and closing his eyes instantly. "Plus the more people have been around the harder it is to track who you want, and there are millions in London, so we went the wrong way a fair few times."

"Danny was great," Harry puts in, admiration in his eyes as he looks at Danny, who smiles at the comment. "Seriously, Tom, you should see him. He just knows which way to go, just like that!" he clicks his fingers for emphasis.

"Yeah, well we were worried, that's all!" Tom says, finding a box of cereal and half a packet of digestives to put on the table, which disappear remarkably quickly as all four of them descend on them.

"Tom started compulsively cleaning like he does when he's nervous," Dougie grins, mouth full of biscuit. "I told him he had to stop or the people who live here would notice when they got back!"

"Speaking of, where are they? The people who live here, I mean," Harry asks, looking around at the deserted flat.

"Went on holiday," Dougie responds. "Did a bit of listening in to the neighbours thoughts. They're back in three days from Cyprus."

"Alright for some," Danny grumbles.

"What's the plan then?" Harry asks, sitting back now the food's all gone.

"What do you mean?" Tom asks, not quite following Harry's train of thought.

"Where are we going?" Harry explains. "We can't stay here, or we'll be found. Bourne will want to get us back..."

"We need to get out of the country, go to Europe or something," Danny says.

"But how do we get across the border? If we leave England, we'll need our passports, and they're almost certainly watching the borders for us, if not our house!"

"It's easy isn't it?" Dougie says, looking between them.

"Doug, I swear that if you don't actually have a reasonable plan, bad things will happen to you," Harry says, as aware as the rest of them that Dougie loves to tease and make up stupid plans.

"No, I'm serious. We go down to a dock where there are ferries to France, Tom makes us all invisible and we sneak on through those massive doors for people with cars. We can probably get off the other end easy enough too."

Tom, Harry and Danny stare at Dougie for a second, not used to him being the clever one.

"Okay," Harry says, coming out of the daze. "Let's do it."

"Tomorrow, before they can set up people to look out for us," Danny says, his enthusiasm for adventure films showing itself.

"But sleep for now," Tom adds, letting the tiredness that's been steadily creeping into his body be recognised.

"Bed," Danny agrees, and they move off, with Danny and Tom in the main bedroom, Dougie on the sofa and Harry in the spare room.

Tom wakes up later in the night when he feels a shift by his side, and moves over when he realises who it is to let Dougie nestle in beside him.

"Didn't want to be alone," Dougie whispers, fingers curling in the pillow.

"S'okay, Harry came in earlier anyway," Tom says, indicating the body squeezed in the middle of the bed, deep breathing steady next to him.

"And he's the one that acts tough! See you in the morning," Dougie murmurs, closing his eyes and snuggling down.

"See you tomorrow," Tom replies, smiling that they can say that again finally, after so long apart.


End file.
